August 12, 2016

My Current Protein Smoothie

I went to the doctor back in June and he encouraged me to change my diet. My diet isn't bad (really). When I told a friend about all of his recommendations, she was appalled because I "eat healthier than anyone" she knows. I don't know about that, but I try not to eat processed food. I won't claim a perfectly balanced diet. I don't love vegetables usually and I don't eat a lot of meat. I'm a carb person, through and through. Even if I'm not eating loaves of french bread for dinner, I eat a lot of carbs.

Carbs are in everything, by the way. I will say that I've cut some things COMPLETELY out of my diet since then (I'm an abstainer, not a moderator): tortilla chips, bread (aside from the occasional sandwich thin), pancakes, and oatmeal.

But cutting out all carbs seems...difficult.

In the spirit of adjustment, I'm incorporating more protein. This really means that my diet has gotten to be extremely boring. I'm not eating pancakes for dinner anymore. I eat the same general things each day now, but I feel amazing, so it's obviously worth it.

I'm not tracking this anywhere (I learned long ago that I'm too OCD to track calories...it's not a good habit for me to fall into), but I'm keeping count of protein grams each day. I was "encouraged" to keep a carb count too. This is hard for me, so I'm just focusing on getting enough protein and then, if I'm full, I won't be tempted to eat chips and salsa for dinner. That's what this comes down to: not eating chips and salsa for dinner.

This smoothie has 30 grams of protein. My goal each day is at least 60 grams because you're supposed to be between 50-75 grams of protein every day. While I knew this on some level, I never considered it before. Yes, bananas have carbs, but half a banana is probably good for you, right?

I have issues in that I can't put peanut butter and spinach together...it's really weird to me. Sometimes I leave the nut butter out and put in spinach and frozen mango but the peanut butter version is tastier and it keeps me full longer.

4 comments:

Smoothie looks delicious! I'm doing low carb, high protein too, and yes, carbs are in just about everything. But it's also not healthy to cut out 100% of carbs anyway - your brain needs them to function properly! That's one of the main reasons I carb cycle...if I eat ONLY extremely low carbs 100% of the time, I'm extremely tired and my concentration is in the tank.

i eat a lot of carbs as well. even when i try not to eat carbs like the obvious ones, pasta, bread, rice etc, like you said, carbs are in everything. it's hard. plus i love carbs so i don't want to give them up lol. i don't eat a lot of meat either, and i don't really focus on protein, just eat what i feel like and keep eating until i am full, which normally means i overeat. i'll have to try this smoothie! i totally agree about spinach with pb. no thanks.